No civilian casualties in Battlefield 3

By dapsycho on 2011-08-31

Speaking with Rock, Paper, Shotgun, DICE's executive producer Patrick Bach explains the decision not to allow gamers to choose to be good or bad by giving them the option to kill unarmed civilians.

"Games are where movies were in the 30s or 40s, when it went from a technical spectacle to 'hey, wait a minute we can actually use this to tell something, be political' and things like that. I think we are on the verge of seeing things like that." ... "if you put the player in front of a choice where they can do good things or bad things, they will do bad things, go dark side - because people think it's cool to be naughty, they won't be caught... In a game where it's more authentic, when you have a gun in your hand and a child in front of you what would happen? Well the player would probably shoot that child."

I kind of agree with that, 9 out of 10 times I would not shoot the child, but there are definitely times I'd do the bad thing, just to see, and Bach believes that in this case DICE would be to blame: "We would be the ones to be blamed. We have to build our experiences so we don't put the player in experiences where they can do bad things."

Bach also believes that games need to grow up, stating: "They (games) will grow with gamers. There will always be games for children - I want games for grown-ups, games I can play. As long as I'm in the business I will make games that I want to play."

Battlefield 3 is due for release on October 28 in the UK and October 25 in the US.